Vegetarians and vegans are sprouting up everywhere this spring!

As a lifetime gardener and resent vegan, I want to share my growing enthusiasm. Grab a package or two of seed and let’s get growing. Now is the perfect time to start salad greens, kale, radishes.

Seeds Want to Grow

Start seedling indoors to transplant in the spring garden in a few weeks.

Even if you don’t have a garden, many of us can find space on porch steps, a window sill, or a five gallon pickle bucket by the driveway. All you need is a sunny spot. Access to water is handy.

Give them a little soil in a sunny spot and seeds will grow. A 4′ x 4′ raised bed is ideal but any container or an abandoned leaky bucket will grow a few green sprouts. Containers don’t have to be fancy. Just make sure there is a drainage hole in the bottom.

Seedlings need light and well-drained soil

Grab some seed, it’s easy to find this time of year, and plant something, anything. Cool season crops, are vegetable plants that grow best in the spring. You can grow and harvest these early greens well before it’s warm enough to plant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.

Grow your own salad. Try lettuce, spinach, radish. Plant a few seed and wait to plant a few more seed in a couple of weeks to stretch out your harvest. It’s OK if you plant to closely, just thin out the seedlings and eat them.

Now is a good time to start cool season herbs, like chervil. These fragile greens are hard to find and expensive to buy. They are the gourmet privilege of home gardeners.

Sow Many Seeds

As you thin peas and onions to proper spacing, add the thinned seedlings to the salad bowl or stir-fry. Photo pbh

There are lots of seeds in a packet. Plant a few and wait to plant a few more seed every two weeks all through the spring. Add those thinings to your salad bowl, they are loaded with nutrients.

Spring greens will tell you when it’s time to stop planting. Cool season crops bolt (go to seed) and turn bitter when it gets too hot. Save any remaining seed for a fall crop.

Seed Sources

I can’t resist the cheap seeds in the grocery and drug stores. Still, I buy most of my seed online from trusted seed companies with high germination rates.